Week 4: Wall Art Mini exercise: SCAVENGER HUNT

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Dwight Shelton
5 years ago
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In most markets there are very specific needs. For example, the baby apparel market needs baby imagery, like small animals. Children s books require an appealing character.

1 Week 4: Wall Art Mini exercise: SCAVENGER HUNT Get ready for some fun This mini assignment is the time for art hoarders to really shine! This mini exercise is easy, playful, and leads you to the big assignment on Wednesday. It s a refreshing change from the others in that it s more experimental and open. In most markets there are very specific needs. For example, the baby apparel market needs baby imagery, like small animals. Children s books require an appealing character. In the case of wall art, however, there are very few requirements. It s open. Mainly, it has to be something that you d want to hang on a wall. The art director buying wall art is going to want to see something new and fresh from you; they are going to want to see what awesomeness you come up with. There are certain themes that are very common, but a big category is abstraction. So this week s assignment will have you make an abstract piece of art. It s also an opportunity to free yourself from imagery and to PLAY! 1

2 If you already work abstractly, then you re all set. If you don t, then see this as a fantastic opportunity to stretch. The truth is every artist already works abstractly; you use color, shapes, line, texture, and design. For this assignment, you simply won t use literal imagery. This assignment may push you out of your comfort zone. That s OK. Enjoy the journey to a new land. You can totally do this! Today it s all about gathering elements that you will use for your wall art piece on Wednesday. If you work digitally, you will gather items and scan them in. If you work traditionally, you will gather items to glue and collage onto a canvas or a board in preparation for Wednesday (but no gluing and sticking yet!). You are only gathering today; you are not making a piece yet. So when you re faced with the notion of making a piece of art, it s good to narrow the focus. Let s start with a playful way to get your color scheme. Step 1: Find the two colors you are going to use based on your astrological sign below. January 20 Feb 18 Aquarius February 19 Mar 20 - Pisces March 21 April 19 - Aries April 20 May 20 Taurus May 21 June 20 - Gemini June 21 July 22 Cancer July 23 August 22 - Leo August 23 Sept 22 Virgo September 23 Oct 22 Libra October 23 Nov 21 Scorpio Nov 22 Dec 21 Sagittarius Dec 22 Jan 19 Capricorn blue and green pink and purple red and yellow yellow and green orange and red yellow and pink blue and orange orange and yellow blue and yellow green and orange yellow and blue red and blue Even if you don t like the colors you are given, go with it. It will open your eyes. Let s say you get red and yellow. You can do a burnt red and a curry yellow. Or a cherry red and a brownish yellow. So you have some latitude. 2

Gather or make 5-10 flat textures (such as papers, tissue, origami papers, vintage wallpaper, paper bags, envelopes, fabric, screen, mesh, aluminum foil, graph paper, etc; or make your own textures

3 Why am I narrowing down your colors? Because you have limited time to get your materials and I want to make it less overwhelming for you. I am letting you gather unlimited neutrals such as greys, taupe, beige, silver, black, white, etc. Step 2: Gather the following items in your two colors and unlimited neutrals. A. Gather or make 5-10 flat textures (such as papers, tissue, origami papers, vintage wallpaper, paper bags, envelopes, fabric, screen, mesh, aluminum foil, graph paper, etc; or make your own textures with paint, etc) B. Gather or make 5-10 round things (buttons, circles, hardware store washers and bolts, bottle caps, bits of broken jewelry, pebbles, tiles, or make your own painted dots, watercolor blobs, etc.) C. Gather or make 5-10 linear items (ribbons, string, cords, old shoelaces, or make some painted lines, etc.) If you work digitally, scan your items in. If you work traditionally, get a canvas board or similar ready, at a size you like that you can fit on your scanner, and get some Mod Podge* or similar adhesive. (*If you can t find Mod Podge where you live, try decopatch glue, or water down PVA glue a little at a time until it goes gloopy) 3

4 It goes like this... Let me walk you through an example. I m am going to use red and yellow. Here are some things found around the house in yellow: an envelope, tissue paper, and a file folder. Easy peasy. Here are some pretty textures in red such as vintage wallpaper, origami paper, and a textured rice paper. Be sure if you use ephemera (vintage paper items) that it is pre-1940 vintage due to rights issues. 4

Here are some interesting mesh textures.

The red mesh is from the box of clementine oranges from the grocery store.

5 Here are some interesting mesh textures. Note how I stay in the red and yellow range. Remember that you have unlimited neutrals. I ve selected some silver-grey screen door mesh (from the hardware store). The red mesh is from the box of clementine oranges from the grocery store. Be inventive and snoop around for some interesting things. Tip: Mesh and grid-type items are very on trend. Here are yellow and red linear elements. Raid your sewing kit, your junk drawer, the fabric store, the thrift shop. 5

Notice that you can cheat a little and that some of your round items

6 Here are some round elements. Raid your old jewelry, a cheap art and craft store, hardware store, etc. Notice that you can cheat a little and that some of your round items can be square as long as they are small and spot-like. Here are some things from my Studio that might inspire you. 6

7 You may also wish to make your own textures like these: So go on, get scavenging! And remember, don t stick anything down yet. We will come to that in the big assignment. 7

Week 4: Wall Art Assignment: COLLAGE CANVAS

Week 4: Wall Art Assignment: COLLAGE CANVAS ASSIGNMENT: Create a piece of ABSTRACT collage-style wall art for a shop like Anthropologie.com or UrbanOutfitters.com for the 25 45 year old female consumer.